Revolution is a most serious matter. A revolution accelerates history or reverses it sometimes. It changes individuals’ values and can even affect their morality. We should not use the word revolution for simple rhetoric nor for demagoguery. One must not glorify revolution unless he or she is ready to devote his life to its cause.
So, we feel uneasy when President Moon Jae-in and his associates define their new government as the result of the “candlelight revolution” that stirred the country from the autumn of last year through the spring of this year. Have we really had a revolution in progress since then, and, if not, what then was the origin of the force that precipitated the removal of President Park Geun-hye from office?
Leaving the question unanswered for the moment, let us look at what’s going on at the nation’s two major public broadcasters, KBS and MBC. The strike at KBS aiming at the ouster of its CEO Koh Dae-young and board chairwoman Lee In-ho, who both are “leftovers” from the past government, is continuing while the walkout at MBC ended earlier this month after a new CEO was installed.
As soon as pro-government trustees formed a majority in the MBC board, they chose Choe Seung-ho, who had been fired five years ago for leading an earlier strike, as the new MBC president. He made an impressive return to the company, walking into his new office side by side with the head of the MBC labor union surrounded by cheering unionists. The huge MBC compound in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, looks like the “liberated zone” of a revolution.
In the broad bureaucratic world that includes the managements of state-owned enterprises, high-level reshuffles are underway to distribute political spoils among those who contributed to the victory of the candlelight struggles. And, most importantly, the winner’s power has been massively exercised in the area of law enforcement for the holy mission of righting past wrongs. The difficult part of this task is invoking the “spirit of candlelight” to enhance the new government’s political sanctity.
An early return to social stability is necessary so that the Moon administration can concentrate on other national pursuits regarding security and the economy. This requires wrapping up the many cases related to the collusion of Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil as soon as possible. Yet, the radical members in the Moon camp must want at least the three key figures -- Park, Choi and Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Group – to burn at the stake.
Since they chose “candlelight” as the icon of their political identity, they have sought a revolutionary milieu for a governmental transition. They need it to rally stronger public support in eliminating the evils of the past and actually suppressing potential adversaries in future politics. As prosecution investigations and trials draw out indefinitely without stunning disclosures, however, doubts grow about the adequacy of the current style of law enforcement.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office under the command of Yoon Suk-ryul, who had been ostracized under the past administration, has made arrests of a number of key players in the previous government after repeated rows with the court over the issuance of warrants. Prosecutors released a few detainees through the rarely used habeas corpus procedure, earning criticism on apparent excesses in the exercise of their power.
As for Choi, 61, the central figure in the 2016-17 turmoil, the prosecution and independent counsel have demanded 25 years in jail and 118 billion won ($109 million) in fines on charges of corruption and obstruction of justice. The 25-year term, in addition to three years Choi already has received for her role in her daughter’s irregular entry into Ewha Womans University, could be a preview of what is being prepared for Park Geun-hye.
Park has lived in a 10-square-meter solitary cell in Seoul Prison since March this year. She has given up her defense after her counsel resigned en masse. Lee Jae-yong is appealing his district court sentence of five years in jail. He has so far spent 10 months behind bars while his companies have scored record profits in the global smartphone and semiconductor markets.
Another example of excess in law enforcement is 95-year-old Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho. He heard the prosecutor seek 10 years in jail for him, but apparently could not understand what was going on in the courtroom. The prosecution demanded four years plus 10 years in jail for Shin Dong-bin, his son and chairman of Lotte Group, on multiple charges stemming from his contributions to the former president. Lotte bore the brunt of Chinese retaliation for the installation of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system here.
Any warm public sentiment toward Samsung’s Lee and the Shins cannot affect the Moon administration’s law enforcement as long as they are determined to perform a pseudo-revolutionary drama. It should be remembered, however, that Park Geun-hye, Choi Soon-sil, Lee Jae-yong, Shin Dong-bin, former presidential aides Woo Byung-woo and An Chong-bum, as well as former intelligence chiefs, are on trial for their misdeeds punishable under our legal system, not because they represent an ancient regime that was toppled by a revolution.
They deserve punishment as much as our laws and practices provide for the offenses they committed, no more, no less. Most of these cases will go up to the Supreme Court and, ultimately, the honorable judges in the top court will tell us the stories of justice as applied to each of them.
And, people with raw power are warned not to make the mistake of their own by trying to create here and there a semblance of what is taking place in MBC and KBS, where communal order is turned upside down as in a developing-world political upheaval. Many people who have lived through the historical junctures of the June 25 war (1950), April 19 student uprising (1960), May 16 coup d’etat (1961), Oct. 26 presidential assassination (1979), May 18 massacre (1980) and June 29 democratic reforms (1987) can tell a revolution from what is not.
Let there be no distortion of the nature of the Park-Choi scandal, which amounts to influence-peddling by a couple of aberrant women, no more, no less. Our leaders must get away from the fantasy of a bogus revolution and try to end internal anomalies as soon as possible, as external threats are at an extreme.
By Kim Myong-sik
Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He can be reached at kmyongsik@hanmail.net – Ed.
